The Lies of His Father

Chapter - 14

With Eda's project dropped off they met with Ferit, Pyril, and Engin to discuss the PR role. Serkan went through the pro's and con's of having an in house PR consultant versus having a PR contract. The partners could see the merits of both. They also looked at the CV's that Leyla had gathered. None of the candidates stood out as a 'must have'.

Ferit was holding one of the CV's, "So if we contracted with an agency they wouldn't be on-site they would just come here for meetings? We wouldn't have to maintain office space for them, we could repurpose that space?"

Serkan looked at him, "We could, what are you thinking?"

"It doesn't make sense to have a separate office for the holding. We could merge both offices here. There are only a couple of people left over there anyways. We could let them go with a package and just manage the holding business here too. Reduce our overhead."

"Pyril, Engin? Do you have a problem with that?"

"Abi, we see Ferit all the time anyways. I actually thought he had an office here."

"Funny Engin, funny."

Serkan looked at Eda, "As Efe's proxy what do you think?"

"You know he wanted to split out of ArtLife, but that was for totally different reasons. I think it makes sense to merge the two under one roof and save the administrative costs."

"Ferit, who does your hotel use for PR?"

"The Baris Agency, we've used them for years, I can have them put together a proposal for us if you like."

This idea met with the approval of all of the partners so they tasked Ferit with getting the PR proposal as soon as possible. The meeting dissolved shortly after that and the regular business of ArtLife resumed. Eda was working on several design projects, one that was left from Efe's tenure but the remaining ones were ArtLife projects, Serkan had no intention of letting her work for anyone else. He knew that she was talented and wanted that talent for their firm.

"Eda, now that Efe is gone, will you be full-time with ArtLife? We need you and your talents whether your located here or Italy."

"I don't know Serkan, people might think that I am sleeping with the boss to get a job," she said cheekily.

"One might think that the boss is trying to lure you to the company with sex. It works both ways. Truly, will you be full-time ArtLife now?"

"As if I would consider working anywhere else. Yes, I will happily work here with you."

Now that where Eda was working was settled for Serkan he wanted to bring her closer into the fold. He had talked with Engin and Pyril about making Eda a partner when she graduated. He would transfer a portion of his ownership to her. When they created ArtLife years ago Serkan came in as the majority shareholder, owning 50% of the shares with Pyril and Engin each owning 25% as Serkan put up the majority of the financials. With Eda as his wife he proposed to transfer 25% to her.

In Serkan's mind this was all done on paper. He had the ultimate trust in Eda, she had shown him time and time again why she was so deserving of his trust. Serkan sent off an email to Ceren asking her to complete the paperwork, he wanted to have this done as her engagement gift. Serkan read through Ceren's responses to his email, made some changes and sent it back to her, yes, he was happy about this decision.

Lunch reservations were at a fancy new restaurant that a famous Italian chef had just opened after ArtLife had done major renovations. Chef Alex always had an opening for Serkan Bolat so today he took advantage of it. The accident and follow-up interview had thawed the relationship between Serkan and Ayfer but he was still aware that there were lingering tensions there. Eda and Aydan had developed a strong bond over the past several weeks and Serkan thought that Ayfer might have some jealousy over that as well.